The Genre Spanner: A Comprehensive Review of The Manhunter Expansion (Patreon)

Many of the monsters in Kingdom Death are blends of concepts and creatures with some spin put on them; the Gorm (review here) is a baby rage pachyderm, while the Sunstalker is part squid, part shark, part hand hair and part solar body, but none of them seem to be as much of a cocktail of elements as the Manhunter. His design has echoes of witch hunters, bounty hunters, vampire hunters, trappers, slavers and even one long standing WWE Wrestler. He is a true mongrel in a world filled with mongrels.

As always, be warned, massive spoilers await you in this review, it’s impossible to do a comprehensive review of these expansions without doing that. So if you want the spoiler light summary, skip to the Why? Where? and Score? sections of this review and that will give you a taste without giving anything much away.

Who?

Manhunters are individuals with ridiculous physiques that demonstrate the dangers of never skipping ‘abs day’, they dress in a dusters and under their ‘not at all borrowed from Games Workshop’ pilgrim hats they have eyes as black as coal. It has been said “If the eyes are the windows to the soul, you're not going to like the view.” If there is anyone this applies to, it would be the Manhunters.

These guys hail from a far off city (most likely the lands of The Entity given the close affinity between Manhunters and White Lions – check the design on the handle of Deathpact, but also they are known to tame White Lions as companions - and their close physical resemblance to the Lion Knight 1st). 

They travel to settlements with the intent of forcing survivors to into kowtowing and paying a ‘blood tax’. They reward settlements that submit to their will and attack those that do not. In combat they fight with fist, foot and gun – in a blend of styles that can be best described as a cowboy bounty hunter meets Games Workshop witch hunter meets the Undertaker from WWE.

Yes, Manhunters are a real mishmash of disparate elements, but did you expect anything less from this game?

Sidenote: The Primary designer for this expansion, Zachary Barash, designed it while listening to the Undertaker's theme on loop (according his comments during our Manhunter GGH).

What?

Inside your plain brown cardboard box with the wicked looking Manhunter crest sticker (why are these things so impossible to remove from the boxes without tearing?) you get the Manhunter 50mm Model, 3 Survivor heads with Pilgrim Hats, 3 Manhunter Pistols (left hand, right hand, not held), AI and Hit Location cards, 5 Strange Resource cards, Fighting Arts and Innovations. The usual good stuff, however you will notice less content than the average quarry, the nemesis expansions tend to be like that.

The Manhunter Sculpt is pretty, interesting. It’s a very detailed sculpt, facially the Manhunter looks a lot like the Undertaker for example. However, the pose is very static, cool but static and while you will find yourself enjoying looking at the model up close and admiring his stakes, portable gallows, bear trap and pouches; when he is on the table he doesn’t look as impressive. If you are up to the challenge however, reposing him a little has a huge impact on the experience – the simple action of repositioning his gun arm (for example) makes him a lot more dynamic.

Additionally, the Manhunter’s abs are utterly ridiculous, he literally has abs on his ribcage. I do not know what the sculptor was thinking, maybe it was based on instructions from the design team – but it is not explained why the Manhunter has an eight pack, is it a joke? Is it something to do with where he comes from or how he was constructed/rebuilt? I don’t know and without that information he just looks stupidly awesome.

The hat is the other area where things are a little off, without some trimming the hat does not sit properly on his head and it just looks wrong. It also looks wrong on the survivors, however I am used to survivors wearing gear that looks ridiculous – in fact given how stupid the average survivor is, I have come to expect it from them, so somehow it feels appropriate that they look silly.

My only real complaint is that most of the Manhunter’s rare gear is not represented by sculpts. Why we get the gun (which you only get from a level 4 Manhunter) but not the lantern (reward for beating a level 1 Manhunter) or the Hunter’s Heart (level 2) I don’t know. It would have been really nice to have had access to these things to add to survivor models - especially the lantern, because it's so good you'll end up using it most hunts.

How?

This expansion is without a doubt the best introductory additional nemesis, as it is not as powerful as the Slender Man or as silly and complex as the Lion Knight. It’s very straightforward. In addition, losing to the Manhunter is an interesting experience in its own right. Or at least it seems to be, truth be told I’ve not lost a fight to the Manhunter to date outside of the first time my friends encountered Dirty Fighting (though it has been close when facing the level 3 and 4s). As before here are is the rundown of what’s what in this spaghetti western cage fight.

The Good:
The Arrival:
The Manhunter’s Introduction is one of the best written pieces of prose in the game, many of the monster introductions feel very abstract, the Flower Knights for example has this crone suddenly living in the settlement (or arriving, I don’t know) and then she leads the survivors out to the flower ring where she dies. It’s sort of, well if feels like a fairy tale, but it’s written in a fashion that suggests it’s happening immediately.

The Manhunter instead is one of the ‘these things are happening to your settlement’ introductions and it’s just brilliant. Whoever wrote it should pat themselves on the back, it’s a combination of initial shock and mystery that ends in a feeling of utter bad assery for the nominated survivor. It really sets the tone for resistance. It also helps that they get one heck of a strong fighting art at the same time.

The Showdown
Boy oh boy this showdown fight is a great one, the Manhunter feels terrifying and powerful right from the very start. It’s always great to see people read his Short Stride/Tombstone cards and their subsequent reactions. The Manhunter demands strategy and tactics when you fight him from the outset. Everything he does is manageable when you come to understand what you are dealing with, but damn does it feel unfair and powerful at first.

In general terms the Level 1 and 2 Manhunters are pretty straightforward opponents, nasty reactions, straight injury rolls ignoring armor, brain damage from guns and a few other tricks here and there but they are something that can be handled. When you reach the level 3 and 4 Manhunters if you have an additional level of nastiness to deal with as they start to employ stakes and pit traps during the fight (represented by hit locations). These reactions are very dangerous and frightening, but they feel fair and balanced – unlike the ridiculous trait that the level 3 Slender Man gains.

The Sonorous Lantern
This is one of those utility items you might overlook a bit because it’s not flashy and it doesn’t do anything during showdowns. That’s a shame, because this one is understated goodness. Not only does it have two very useful affinities in beneficial directions, but it also provides a really useful hunt event.

There is a missed opportunity however, because this item would have better design if it placed a ‘Sonorous Rest’ special hunt event somewhere on the hunt track. Yes, that would have made it less flexible, but it also would have made its purpose clearer and also linked it to the other three hunt event items (Pickaxe, Sickle, Sky Lure). 

As it stands right now I often find people staring at the card and refusing to use it because they are afraid of 90% of the things that happen during the hunt event (and rightly so), I’ve also heard disappointment along the lines of ‘is that it?’ After it has been activated. Maybe it is just the people I play with, but I don't see a lot of respect for the lantern.

The Hunter’s Heart
This unique gear comes from beating the level 2 Manhunter and in addition to revealing that the Manhunters are not entirely natural in their nature it also provides one of the few ways a dead survivor can come back to life. It is an interesting piece of gear that suggests some Manhunters are more resistant to death than expected (except for the level 2 one, good luck surviving without your heart matey). In some ways it is a waste of a slot on a survivor, but it is a unique design and something that is of benefit to players who like to send in fresh newbies to sacrifice versus certain nemesis monsters.

However, my main attachment to this item is because it is used as one of the components in crafting Green Armor. I love building Green Armor parts.

The Tool Belt
The Tool Belt is the number one reason why I want to put the Manhunter into absolutely every campaign my groups will let me. It sits in the same category as the Green Ring (Spidicules), Shadow Saliva Shawl (Sunstalker), Layline Walker ability and the Acanthus Doctor Secret Fighting Art.

It allows for new and unique builds that would not normally possible. In this case it facilitates using Pickaxes or Sickles as weapons, late game weapons in fact. In addition, removing Frail from Pickaxes is a massive boost to iron collecting on hunts, when combined with Digging Claws from the DBK you have 3-4 pickaxes that you can mine with that are not frail. That’s huge!

In addition, when you go after the Dung Beetle Knight, you will absolutely love having someone who uses this item in combination with the pickaxe. It’s so good that I find myself wishing there was a "weapon" mastery for tools.

The Manhunter’s Hat
You can knock the Manhunter’s Hat off his head and keep it for yourself!

How cool is that? 

It is an accessory that is intended to work as a replacement head piece for the Rawhide (meh) and Leather (woo!) sets. Be aware that Poots said it should have the ‘Outfit’ ability, which is an ability that makes it count as part of a set which has the same armor keywords. In this case Rawhide and Leather. In addition the hat has useful affinities, a good ability and well, it’s the Manhunter’s Hat. Screw you Manhunter, I’ve got your hat now. *thumbs the brim*

Abyssal Sadist
It is worth mentioning this Fighting Art separately from the other fighting arts because it is the one that is gifted to the survivor who gets the deranged expression. It is a powerhouse of a fighting art because it allows a survivor to potentially generate survival for themselves every turn. Extra survival is always a good thing to have because it can be used in a wide variety of different uses thanks to the Surge survival ability.

However, with the new sculpture allowing you to 'save' this fighting art and give it to everyone in your settlement, this can feel a little overpowered now we are in 1.5 land.

The Bad:

Reactions
I’m not a huge fan of how the Manhunter reacts in general, he essentially lashes out at people who are adjacent and inflicts severe injuries. There is counter play to this experience, but it’s a little too close to being a ‘gotchya’ moment the first couple of times you encounter this. However, this is not a big issue, it is more something that you need to be aware of and take into account, especially as you move towards the higher level Manhunters.

So this is only a mild bad, once you're aware of how he plays it adds a new level of strategy to the game and I adore it.

Deathpact
Considering that this is the last piece of gear you get and you have to beat a level 4 Manhunter to do so, you’d expect something really impressive right? Well, this one is, sort of. It is in essence a constant source of survival with a single use founding stone built in. The main thing I am disappointed with is that there is no way to track if the gun was fired without paperwork. It would not have been hard to make this card double sided and have the reverse side represent the fired gun. Perhaps the idea of double sided gear cards didn’t come along until later (Dung Beetle Knight.

That written, Deathpact’s constant source of survival can result in some incredible builds. At the very least it can be used on a tank to ensure a surge every turn in order to activate block or activate a Phoenix Placart.

The Ugly:

The Manhunter is of course the Ugly, what did you expect?

However, for those of you who want something a little more substantial, there are a lot of very dark implications involved in the Manhunter. If you are cowed by him and start giving him tribute then you’ll start to wonder what is exactly happening to the tribute after he takes it away. 

Considering where Manhunters come from and the implication from the Tools of War story event it is probably not a pleasant fate.

Some people may have problems, justifiable problems, with what the Manhunter represents. Fortunately you can resist his attempts to ‘tax’ your populace, so if you’re not fine with slavery, cannibalism and much, much worse fates (Wet Nurse anyone?) for your people - then you can fight the good fight. I always do.

Why?
The Manhunter serves as one of the best balanced of the nemesis encounters in the game, it suits the nature of the setting immensely well, has synergy with multiple other expansions (Slender Man, DBK, Spidicules, Gorm, Sunstalker). However, the main thing to consider here is that you get less physical content in a nemesis expansion (most of the time) and the Manhunter is typical of this, he provides extra fights, extra fighting arts, extra innovations but no extra craftable gear. But. But! You will face him up to 4 times in a timeline, which is more than most other nemesis monsters in this game, which is in itself is a big bonus worth considering.

Where?

In the centre of the settlement diorama, unaware that he is about to get decked by my survivors and have his hat, heart and tool belt stolen.

Score?

I give this one three level three Manhunters out of a possible four. It’s the nemesis expansion that everyone should consider for their first additional nemesis. Standing alongside the Slenderman in quality, but providing a different atmosphere and being leaps and bounds superior to the Lion Knight/King's Man.

8/10

If you want to read more about the Manhunter, you can check out my Seasoned Hunter guide on him, or listen to the Great Game Hunter's Podcast!